You Have to Know What Clean Really Is….

February 10, 2016

Clean Atlanta RestaurantI scrub the faucet handles on the hand sink in the kitchen.

There are instructions on the food handling tests that the Chef, Sous and Manager have to take in Georgia that tell us all how to wash our hands. It instructs for how long and for us to let the water run while grabbing a paper towel. Turn off the handles with the paper towel and then dry your hands…..

Well if someone doesn’t follow this procedure, then the paper towel becomes contaminated, so you have to scrub all the handles frequently. It drives my staff crazy when they see me doing this on a busy night. But first things first. We use Comet spray. In speaking to a chemical engineer a few years ago who was trying to sell me his new cleaning products, he let slip that Comet Cleanser has a patent on their cleaner in that it doesn’t have to be rinsed. Well, OK.  I buy Comet spray and yes, we go through a lot, as in a case every three weeks. Everything else in the restaurant is washed with warm soapy water, rinsed and then soaked or rinsed again with sanitizer.

Yes, we do pull all the shelves away from the walls in the walk in coolers and scrub them down, wash and sanitize the racks. We do the same with the line coolers and freezer.
We dust, clean the bathrooms and scrub the kitchen and bar.

But you also have to clean under the coffee machine and scrub the undersides of sinks and shelves. You have to wipe the salt and pepper shakers. Also the touch screens on our computers, the handles on the walk in coolers. You have to scrub the wheels on the kitchen equipment.

We’re serious. I’ve had many repair people come in and tell me we have one of the cleanest kitchens they see. We’ve had not so good scores from the health department for missing the most minuscule item and have gotten a great score where I know we should have scored lower.

So yes, you have to be a clean freak. A neat freak helps too, but that’s another post…..

Photo Credit: Andrew Bain

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